Close shaves aid Harwich firefighter

Friends of Harwich firefighter Robert Johnson "Go Bald for Bobby" to raise money for his fight against an aggressive form of brain cancer.

MARY ANN BRAGG

HARWICH — When Laurel Johnson noticed how listless her firefighter husband Robert was last August, she knew one thing for sure. She needed help from his buddies.

Even though firefighters spend their lives helping others, they notoriously decline help for themselves, Laurel Johnson said.

So into the house one afternoon came Kent Farrenkopf, a Harwich Fire Department captain, to try to talk his friend into a rescue squad evaluation. They talked and talked until Johnson finally agreed, Farrenkopf said. Then it took more time for the strong-willed fire inspector known as "Bobby J" to agree to the ride to the hospital.

"I knew I was going to need some reinforcement," Farrenkopf said. "We were able to talk him into it."

Yesterday at the "Go Bald for Bobby" fundraiser, Farrenkopf and 155 others, most of them firefighters and dispatchers in the region, allowed hair stylists to shave their heads bald in support of Johnson, 56, who has a malignant brain tumor known as glioblastoma.

In plastic chairs that lined one wall of the Harwich Community Center, the men — no women stepped up — had their necks wrapped with a salon apron. An electric shaver buzzed away most of their hair. Then the stylists applied warm shaving cream and began the scraping that would soon enough leave each scalp clean, reminiscent of Curly from the Three Stooges.

Johnson, who walks with assistance, got the razor as well.

"When you go outside, you're going to be cold," Johnson said.

He was actually getting a cleanup from the shaved head he'd decided on after the first radiation and chemotherapy treatment made his hair fall out.

Doctors at Cape Cod Hospital gave Johnson his diagnosis at the end of August, after the trip to the hospital and a brain scan. He had surgery a week later to remove the tumor. He then underwent the treatment and was free of symptoms for four months. But the listlessness returned in January, Laurel Johnson said. A second surgery in January removed a second tumor.

Johnson now participates in a clinical trial at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and is taking a new chemotherapy drug to try to shrink the remaining tumor. "But it is the most aggressive type of brain tumor," Laurel Johnson said. She described her husband's prognosis as "very guarded."

Among those cutting their hair off yesterday was Yarmouth fire dispatcher Christopher Ruell, 49, of West Yarmouth, with his 12-year-old daughter, Sarah, taking a photo of him as he went under the razor. Next to Ruell was Patrick Friel, 25, of West Barnstable, a member of the Falmouth Fire Department, who likened his head shaving to a good scratch on the noggin.

Nearby stood 10-year-old Evan Eldredge of Harwich Port, who underwent shaving in solidarity with both Johnson and his own mom, Lisa Eldredge, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma five years ago. "I lost a couple of inches," Eldredge said, referring to the former height of his hair.

Johnson, a second-generation firefighter, grew up in Harwich. Besides his wife, he lives with three Siamese cats. He took time off from the fire department after his first surgery and returned to work. But with the second surgery he is taking time off again.

Money raised at the head shaving — at least $3,000 — will help pay for his medical treatment and other expenses.